GoKawiilIt's pretty easy to digitally sign important documents these days from your computer or phone. But sometimes they're handed to you as physical paper, and it's up to you to sign it, scan it and send it over email. When you just have to put your signature on a real-life document, but you don't have a standalone scanner handy, the easiest method to do it is right in your pocket -- using your iPhone to turn images into PDFs.
Yes, your iPhone doubles as a document scanner. It may not produce images as sharp as a dedicated scanner would, but it does a respectable job, even when the phone is positioned at odd angles, trying to capture text. iPhones have had this hidden feature since iOS 11 launched in 2017, but as the cameras built into Apple phones have improved, so has their ability to take decent scans of documents and turn them into PDFs you can email.
You won't need to download additional software or pay for a third-party app -- Apple's Notes app that comes preinstalled on iPhones does the trick. The good news is that it's quick and easy to scan a document, save it, and send it wherever it needs to go. If you've kept your phone upgraded to the latest version of iOS 26, it's easy to use this feature. Keep in mind that the process will be different if you haven't upgraded past iOS 17, but we'll walk you through it.
Here's how to scan a document with your iPhone.
James Martin/CNET
Scan a document with your iPhone or iPad
To scan a document with your iPhone or iPad, first place the document on a flat surface in a well-lit area.
Open up the Notes app and either open an existing note or start a new one by tapping the New Note button in the bottom right corner (pencil-in-square icon). On iOS 17 versions and older, tap the Camera button at the bottom of the screen (or if you're editing a note, the same Camera icon will be above the keyboard) and tap Scan Documents. If you're on iOS 26, instead of a Camera icon, you'll tap the Attachments button (the paperclip icon) and likewise tap Scan Documents.
This will open a version of the Camera app that just looks for documents. Once you position your iPhone over the document that needs scanning and in view of the camera, a yellow rectangular layer will automatically appear over the document, showing approximately what will be captured. Hover over the document for a few seconds, and the iPhone should automatically capture and scan the document, but you can also tap the Shutter button in the bottom center. You can scan multiple documents at once if you'd like, and when you're done, tap the yellow checkmark button in the top-right corner.
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